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Monday, 13 December 2010

Blackleach Country Park

Blackleach Country Park, photo by Crafty Green Boyfriend

We had a lovely visit to my parents this weekend, enjoying much warmer temperatures than Edinburgh! We discovered Blackleach Country park, which is almost on my parents' doorstep. This was designated as a country park in 2004 (it was derelict land when I was growing up) and has a lake and some nice walks. We saw a good flock of long tailed tits in the trees as well as lots of water birds, including large numbers of coots.

My parents' garden was also full of birds, notably up to ten goldfinches on the bird feeders, several blackbirds fighting over the sultanas, blue tits, a song thrush (which despite their recent declines in number are still regularly seen and heard near my parents' home), a dunnock, a wren and a very good view of a jay, which is a big handsome bird that I don't often get a close look at.

The train journey from Bolton to Edinburgh is always lovely, passing through the English Lake District and southern Scotland. It looked particularly lovely with the dustings of snow. We also noticed the Cauldstane Slap pass, which is nicely visible from the train as it passes between Carstairs and Edinburgh and which the Belvedere Mountain Express album was named after.

We got back to Edinburgh yesterday to find that my reading at TraVerses was cancelled, which was a relief in some ways as I don't really like rushing around and didn't really feel like going straight out to read after getting off a train!

As ever, red text in this post contains hyperlinks to other pages where you can find out more.

glad to hear you had a nice visit with your parents and got to see so many beautiful birds/ landscape along the way. beautiful picture, btw. i understand fully about wanting to rest before rushing to an event. glad you had that opportunity. have a great day.

Hi, What a terrific 'wish I was there' blog! I adore birds, and often think I would love to come back in another life as one. JUst think of what you'd see! Thank you for sharing such a lovely vision with us!

In answer to Sandy, nobody really knows the meaning of the name Cauldstane Slap – it is lost in the mists of time. ‘Cauld stane’ is Scots for ‘cold stone’, but a slap? Who knows! There is also a hill in the city of Edinburgh itself with the wonderful name Buckstone Snab, but don’t ask what a snab is!

Juliet, I’m glad I didn’t bother going along to the Traverse Theatre, as your reading was cancelled!

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